Square Pie is a British food brand founded in

Spitalfields Spitalfields () is an area in London, England and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in East London and situated in the East End of London, East End. Spitalfields is formed around Commercial Street, London, Commercial Stre ...

, east London, which specialises in handmade

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), fruit preserves ( jam tart ...

History

It was founded in 2001, with the first outlet, "The Square Pie Company", being opened in Spitalfields Market in November of that year. After the success of this shop, and after expanding sales by supplying London venues such as The Social and The Lock Tavern and running a stall at

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

, Square Pie opened a concession in

Selfridges Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of upmarket department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1908. The historic Daniel Burnham-designed Self ...

food hall in London in 2003. A third outlet was opened at

Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is a financial area of London, England, located in the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Greater London Authority defines it as part of London's central business district, alongside Central London. Alongside ...

in June 2004 to be followed by sites at The Brunswick Centre in Russell Square,

Heathrow Terminal 1 Heathrow Terminal 1 is a disused airport terminal at London Heathrow Airport that was in operation between 1968 and 2015. When it was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in April 1969, it was the largest new airport terminal in western Eur ...

Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

and

Twickenham Twickenham ( ) is a suburban district of London, England, on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historic counties of England, Historically in Middlesex, since 1965 it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, who ...

. Square Pie went on to have outlets in Westfield White City,

The O2 The O2 (formerly known as the Millennium Dome) is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, Town square, piazzas, ...

, Birmingham Grand Central,

Westfield Stratford City Westfield Stratford City is a shopping centre in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, which opened on 13 September 2011. With a total retail floor area of , it is the largest urban shopping centre in the UK by land area and the List of ...

and a fusion brand Square and Co outlet in Bluewater. The Square Pie brand was acquired in February 2018 by Beat Foods Ltd following Square Pie Limited entering administration due to the failure of its restaurant business. Beat Foods Ltd continue to produce Square Pie branded products for the Wholesale and Grocery Markets.

Retail

In 2007,

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company was the largest UK r ...

launched a Square Pie range across 71 of its stores raising to over 500 stores. As with those produced for Square Pies' outlets, the pies in this "Take Me Home and Bake Me" range are handmade, using only natural ingredients, with "clean and simple" packaging designed to reflect Square Pie's image as an "honest British food brand" – Square Pie outlets similarly use brown-board boxes as food containers. Following its successful launch into Sainsburys, Square Pie launched into other retail outlets such as

Ocado Ocado Group plc ( ) is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It also owns a 50% share in the UK grocery retail business Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer). The company ...

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen (businessman), Sir Jack Cohen in ...

, Coop Food and

Waitrose Waitrose Limited, trading as Waitrose & Partners, is a British supermarket chain, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. In 1937, it was acquired by the John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee-owned b ...

Specialities

Among the over 116 different types of pies the company made between 2001 and 2006, Square Pie has produced tie-ins to sports championships, making a "humble pie" –

kangaroo Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

meat, red onion, field mushroom and Merlot – to mark Australia's loss at the 2003

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

, and running a "Pie World Cup" during the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

(won by the Senegalese Chicken Yasser). It also launched a pie branded with the

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

logo in 2004, in support of London's (successful) bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012.

References

External links

* {{Pies British pie brands Catering and food service companies of the United Kingdom Food manufacturers based in London British companies established in 2001 Privately held companies of the United Kingdom Restaurants established in 2001 Restaurants in London